Happy Friday!
This week, our research team tracked over 70 tech funding deals worth about €2.5 billion, along with 25 M&A transactions, rumours, and related news stories across Europe, including Russia, Israel, and Turkey.
As always, we are putting all of them together for you in a handy list sent in our Friday afternoon roundup newsletter (note: the full list is for paying customers only).
Recently, we also started publishing 'Today in European Tech', a daily roundup of deals and news stories that caught our attention. Keeping you updated on all things EU tech is our priority!
Today, instead of a daily roundup we give you an overview of the 10 biggest European tech news items for the past week (subscribe to our free newsletter to get this roundup in your inbox every Monday morning):
1)
Online luxury fashion retailer Farfetch has secured an eye-watering $1.1 billion in funding from Alibaba and Swiss watch and jewellery group Richemont. The money will be used to fuel the company's expansion to China.
2)
Pipedrive, a CRM platform for sales and marketing teams, has signed an agreement to receive a majority investment from Vista Equity Partners, an Austin, Texas-based VC firm – which puts the company’s valuation at about $1.5 billion. With this, the Estonian-born startup reached unicorn status.
3)
Spotify has entered into an agreement to acquire ad tech company Megaphone in a $235 million deal. Megaphone offers technology for podcast publishers and advertisers seeking targeted slots on podcasts.
4)
The European Commission has concluded that Amazon breached European antitrust rules by using independent sellers’ data for its own benefit. It also announced Tuesday a second investigation into the company’s e-commerce processes. The decision comes after the Commission, which is the executive arm of the European Union, launched a probe into the online retailer in July 2019 on the back of concerns over anti-competitive behaviour.
5)
German micro-mobility company TIER has raised a $250 million Series C round led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2i. Existing investors joined, including Mubadala Capital, Northzone, Goodwater Capital, White Star Capital, Novator and RTP Global. The Berlin-based business, already profitable, will use the funding to build an electric charging network and continue expanding coverage in European cities.
6)
Hopin, a fledgling UK startup that is rapidly gaining ground in the burgeoning virtual events space, has raised $125 million in a series B round led by IVP and Tiger Global. This raise values the 17-month-old company at a staggering $2.1 billion.
7)
Gamedev company Take-Two has agreed to buy Codemasters, a British gaming company, for £726 million in cash and stock.
8)
The European Commission has agreed on a €1.8 trillion recovery package to “rebuild a post-COVID-19 Europe, which will be greener, more digital, more resilient,” and so on. The package contains an extra €4 billion for the Horizon Europe research and innovation programme.
9)
London-based VC Seedcamp has announced the £78 million first and final close of its fifth fund, which will go to pre-seed and seed stage investments. Some capital will be reserved for follow-on rounds up to Series B.
10)
Bolt has unveiled plans to bring its micromobility services to more than 100 cities next year. The company will operate 130,000 electric scooters and electric bikes in 2021, becoming the largest operator of shared light electric vehicles in Europe. Bolt will invest more than €100 million in growing its micromobility business and building its custom-made hardware.
Podcast:
tech.eu Podcast #195: Post-election news flood, another European unicorn, micromobility news, policy updates, and we talk to Tjarda Voorneman of Techleap
Bonus links:
- Startup operating models: Uncovering the secret sauce behind European growth companies
- The future of on-demand delivery lies in consolidation (a tech.eu guest post by Glovo co-founder Sacha Michaud)
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